1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mounting construction which facilitates electrical connection between electrical connection apparatuses and between the apparatuses and an instrument panel within a limited space such as instrument panels of a vehicle.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, the electrical connection to an instrument board within the instrument panel of a vehicle has been made by directly inserting the connectors of a wire harness fixed to the car body into the mating connectors provided on the instrument board, or by first connecting the harness to an electrical connection apparatus and then connecting the electrical connection apparatus to the instrument board through connectors provided on both the apparatus and the instrument board. The wire harness side is secured to the car body before the instrument is assembled. Meanwhile the instrument board is assembled on an instrument panel frame to form a dash board assembly which is mounted later in place on the car body, thereby allowing fitting engagement between the instrument board side and the harness side, or between the instrument board and the electrical connection apparatus.
However, with this type of construction, fitting between the wire harness side and the instrument board side or between the connection apparatus side and the instrument board side takes place at the same time as assembling the dash board assembly to the car body. Thus normal fitting between the wire harness side or the apparatus side and the instrument board side may not be accomplished in some cases due to positional misalignment between the connectors. A construction for overcoming the aforementioned drawback is disclosed in Japanese Patent KOKAI Publication No. 57-37625 in which the connector of the wire harness side can be adjusted its location both in vertical direction and in horizontal direction along the wall surface of the electrical connection apparatus. However the prior art construction suffers from a problem that it is not easy to access the connector of the wire harness in order to align the location thereof relative to the instrument board because the wire harness is located behind the instrument board.
A dash board assembly is large and heavy as compared to connectors and accordingly position alignment between the connectors on the dash board and their mating connectors requires much labor and time in assembly stage. The time consuming assembly stage has been a large barrier that hampers improvement of productivity at vehicle manufactureres side.
The wire harness has a number of joints and branches for electrical connections between various electrical components and meters which are resident in the instrument panel. Therefore the diameter of the wire harness tends to become large as well as wiring manner become increasingly complicated. If all of these jointing portions are to be housed in the electrical connection apparatus secured to the car body, then circuits within the connection apparatus will be necessarily complex, causing difficulty in manufacturing the instrument panel assembly.